One
of Robert R. Desjarlais' previous books, Shelter
Blues: Sanity and Selfhood Among the Homeless, featured the stories of homeless
men and women. Considering his past interest, I was curious if the Inwood Seven and
other street chess players would be the focus of Desjarlais' Counterplay:
An Anthropologist at the Chessboard (2011).

But
blitz chess in NYC's parks gets only two paragraphs in Desjarlais' 251-page
book. Desjarlais' primary locations are chess clubs within 25 miles of his home
in Bronxville, New York; tournaments on the East Coast; and his computer, which
accesses Fritz and the Internet Chess Club. Currently the Alice Stone Ilchman
Chair in Comparative and International Studies at Sarah Lawrence College,
Desjarlais conducted his chess research by participant observation. That is, he
played and studied chess as "other chess players do." His five-year return to tournament
chess, after 20 years away, frames his book.

Desjarlais
cites a USCF rating of 1876 near the beginning of his book and one over 2000 by
the end. Desjarlais quotes from Jakob Stockel (1759) and Polly Wright (1706),
but no tournament player under 1700 gets mentioned by name. Quotes of a
paragraph or more are from high-rated players: WGM Rusudan Goletiani, GM Larry
Kaufman, GM Jesse Kraai, GM Jonathan Rowson, GM Alexander Shabalov, IM Greg
Shahade, GM-elect Sam Shankland, WFM Elizabeth Vicary, IM John Watson, FM Sunil
Weeramantry, GM Leonid Yudasin, and assorted NYC-area 1900-rated players,
experts, and masters.

Dr. Alexey Root (AR):When you interview a USCF-rated chess
player, it's always someone rated at least 1700 and often over 1900. Why select
above-average players?Robert R. Desjarlais (RD):That's an interesting question. To be
honest, I hadn't noticed that I did not interview many players under 1700, and
little mention of them is in the book. My working research strategy was to
interview professional players and to converse with friends of mine on their
experiences of the game, and most of those are in the same rating range as me
(roughly, 1800-2200). It's also the case that I was quietly anticipating a
potential and predictable critique of the book, that, since I wasn't an
especially strong player myself, I didn't have the knowledge to speak in an
informed way about the subtleties of chess. Perhaps that helps to account for
the focus on "above-average players," as you put it.

AR:Please explain this quote from your book:
"Hooking up is to going steady as
online blitz chess is to classical over-the-board play." RD: This analogy came from a conversation with
an undergraduate student who worked as a research assistant for me at Sarah
Lawrence College. After she read an earlier version of the chapter that
discusses playing blitz chess on the Internet, she told me that it reminded her
of how many people of her age relate amorously with others. There is a
quickness and casualness and impersonality to online blitz chess which is
similar to the "hooking up" with which her friends are familiar. Classical
over-the-board play, in contrast, is more akin to the commitment and steady
intimacy associated with the "going steady" known by earlier generations.

AR:What did you learn about chess or about
chess players that you didn't expect when you started your research?RD: I think
there were many things that I was led to think intently about through the
research. For one, I came to realize how much themes of play run through
people's experiences of chess - and how rich, in turn, the medium of play is in
people's lives more generally. It's foundation to how we imagine, create, and
relate to others. I was also struck by the passion that people have for the game.
While this passion might waver through the years, it's clear that people have a
fondness for chess that never fully fades. I also came to appreciate the many
different reasons that people play chess and invest their efforts in
competitive chess. For some, the competitive thrills of tournament play keep
them at the board, while for others it's the delight in appreciating the truth
and beauty of chess - of being witness to it.

AR:What do you think Chess Life Online readers will most enjoy about Counterplay?RD: I would hope that they would be able to identify with the passions, challenges,
joys, dilemmas, and intrigues chronicled in the book. I tried to write the book
in such a way that it is authentic to how amateur players engage with the game.
I would also think that Chess Life Online
readers might appreciate the many anthropological observations to be found in the
book - how, for instance, themes of ritual, play, sociality, flow, narrative,
empathy, devotion, and interpersonal competition and camaraderie so often
course through our experiences of playing chess. The book also offers in-depth
discussions of how computer technologies, from on-line chess servers to chess
analysis programs, are shaping the way people play and think about chess.

AR:You mention that your illusio for chess was from roughly 2002
to 2007. What is your illusio now?RD: As I note
in the book, some sociologists and anthropologists have drawn on the concept of
illusio, a Latin word which
in this context means "source of interest in life," to speak of the interest
that a person holds in a particular field in life-be it scholarly work or
religion or football-or in life in general. It's the investment and commitment
people have for the activities that give meaning to their lives.

An abiding illusio for me now
is to write about life in ways that get at some truths about it. So I guess we
could say that writing itself has returned as an important source of interest
in my life. The writing of Counterplay, where
I was trying to figure out how to write about the lives and yearnings of chess
players in effective ways, had a lot to do with that. These efforts brought me
back to the intrigues and value of writing about people's lives in
anthropologically informed, non-fiction ways. I am currently working on a book
that considers certain dimensions of death, mourning, and funeral rites in
Nepal, and I have several ideas for other potential books once that that text
is done, including one on friendship. AR: You give chess diagrams and partial
information about three of your over-the-board games: A win over National
Master Vladimir Grechikhin, a loss to FM Asa Hoffman, and a loss to National
Master John Riddell. Would you like to share one of these games with CLO readers?RD: Perhaps
a good game to share would be the one with Vladimir Grechikhin, which was
played on a Saturday afternoon at the Marshall Chess Club in July 2003. This
was my first victory against a National Master. As this game is a central focus
of the book's second chapter, I thought it might be interesting to the readers
of Chess Life Online to include
selections from the running narrative account of the game in that chapter. As
in a few other chapters, I use a second-person "you" voice in describing my experiences
at the board, while exploring different aspects of chess, such as the
competitive dimensions and the roles that complexity and "exquisite violence"
plays in the game. Much of the narrative is presented here:

He's sitting across from you now. You're soon to embark on that
weirdly intimate social encoutner known as a tournament chess game. Since
Grechikhin did not overwhelm you in your last game, you feel you have a decent
shot against him.

You're positioned elbow-to-elbow alongside other players in the
room, which is the size of a small classroom and separated from the adjoining hallway
by a red curtain. This ritual space holds several rows of tables, two or three
chessboards to a table, with a numbered piece of paper taped next to each one.
The highest-rated player is at the first board, playing the highest-rated
player from the second tier.

Bodies and voices settle down in the room. Around you, other games
are beginning; you shake hands with Grechikhin, and then start his clock. He's
been assigned the White pieces. You have Black. You each have ninety minutes to
make your first thirty moves. After that there's an additional "sudden death"
hour until someone wins, someone's time expires, or a draw is agreed upon.

1. e4 c5
Grechikhin makes his first move. You write down the move on your
game score sheet. With your own first move you try to steer the game toward a
combative, double-edged defense known as the Sicilian Defense.2. b4
You'd like to lead the game toward the Accelerated Dragon, a variation
of the Sicilian you've been playing lately. Grechikhin wants nothing to do with
that. He steers the game into an offbeat anti-Sicilian variation known as the
Wing Gambit, where he proposes the sacrificial gambit of a pawn to gain good
control of the center squares and scamper his pieces into play. He wants to mix
things up and outplay you in a complicated melee. His game strategy throws you
off; you were hoping for a more measured game, in waters you know better.

You flinch. You don't want to play against this.

You've seen this position on chessboards before, and have fought
against it in blitz games. You understand that the chess theorists out there
consider the gambit dubious, but you don't rightly know what to do against it,
so you'll have to play by feel. You're already "out of book," as they say. You feel
your heart pulsing in your chest. You're looking to survive the opening. You're
reminded of a boxer who steps in for the first round only to be pummeled out of
the ring.

Grechikhin's cavalier approach makes you wonder if he doesn't
think much of his opponent's chess skills. He probably wouldn't wield the
gambit against a stronger player. Perhaps he's aiming for a quick win against
what he takes to be a patzer, an inexperienced player.2...b6
You give your next moves a lot of thought, as your clock ticks off
precious minutes. There's no way you want to get your king caught in a lot of
crossfire before it has time to find cover behind a row of pawns. You decide to
play cautiously, aiming for a solid defensive setup, and decline Grechikhin's
pawn offer. You figure there's probably not much established theory covering
the positions that will result from your move, so you're both in uncharted
waters. If your game were a theatrical play, it would be an experimental
off-off-Broadway production.3. bxc5 bxc54. Nf3Nc65. Bb5 Bb7
Grechikhin makes a move. You think about how you want to parry,
and make a move of your own. He does the same after a few minutes, as the two
of you become embroiled in the syncopated, back-and-forth dialogue that makes
up a tournament game.6. 0-0 Nf67. Re1 g68. e5 Nd5
At one point, you see what you take to be a way that Grechikhin
can launch an attack. You start to worry about him opening up the center before
you can hide your king on the kingside. But he doesn't follow that course,
either because he doesn't notice it himself or because he decides that it's not
worth pursuing. The game proceeds along a less violent path. A sequence of
carefully selected moves leads to a position where you're not badly off.9. Na3 Bg710. Rb1 0-011. c3 Qc7
With your eleventh move, you nudge your queen from its starting
position to a square that looks promising for it, and then sit back to take
stock. You've survived the first onslaught. You've managed to develop your
pieces and get your king castled safely behind a row of pawns, without giving
up too much ground. Your heart beats less frantically.

You step out of the room to get some water, and return to the
board. You take a look at the game to your right. A man in his fifties
(Russian, apparently) is playing a gritty game against a hormonal kid pushing
sixteen at best.12. Nc4 Rab813. Ba3 Nd814. Qa4 d615. exd6 exd6
A
couple of other games have ended, in either bloody assaults or expedient draws.
Ilye Figler has a pressing edge in his game against Katharine Pelletier, while
Jay Bonin is beating up on his outclassed opponent. Jay sets up a nice mating
attack, and then goes in for the kill as his opponent broods at the board,
red-faced in defeat. Upon winning, Jay gets up and walks off with a
canary-swallowing smile, score sheet in hand.

The
room is quiet. The loudest sounds are the ticking of chess clocks and the hum
of the air-conditioner. People have settled into the muted rhythm of tournament
games: think, make a move, press the clock, write down the move made. Think,
move, clock, write. Think.

You and
your opponent are doing the same. Grechikhin is pressing against your position,
while you're trying to hit on moves that give good counterchances.

16. Qa5
With
his sixteenth move Grechikhin makes a decision that surprises you: he moves his
queen one square forward, where it's operating along the same diagonal as your
own queen, which stands a few inches away.

One
small step by the lady, and the ecology of the game shifts. By posting his
queen on a square that is in direct communication with your own queen,
Grechikhin is offering to exchange queens. Once these mighty pieces are off the
board, the game can boil down to an endgame.

What's going on here? you
ask yourself. Reuben Fine, an American grandmaster and psychoanalyst, once
contended that a leading chess player preferred opening variations that involve
an early exchange of queens because he unconsciously desired to get "rid of women"
in order to deny or regulate his sexual impulses. You know little about your
opponent's psychodynamics, but your guess is that he wants to eliminate the
queens not because of any psychosexual issues but because he thinks he can
outplay you in an ending, especially since you collapsed at the end of your
previous game. ("Yes. The endgame.") But in letting you exchange queens, and so
getting his most powerful piece off the battlefield, he allows you to relieve
some of the pressure against your position.16...Qxa5
You do
just that. Your pieces breathe easier. Exchanges follow. The position is
simplifying into an ending in which you'll each have a couple pieces and a
cluster of pawns. You're not sure who will be better off.17. Nxa5 Ne6
[better would have been
17...Nxc3! with the idea of 18. dxc3 Bxf3 19. Bxc3, when the bishop is attacking
both the rook on e1 and the knight on e5] 18. Nxb7 Rxb719. Bc4 Rxb120. Rxb1 Nb6
You
play on. You're both trying to position your pieces on better squares, to try
to gain some kind of advantage. As you concentrate, the world fades around you.
You're unaware of anyone or anything else in the room. No sound. No movement.
No opponent. You're conscious only of the possibilities on the board. Think,
move, clock, write. Think again. At times you can't shake the feeling that a
grandmaster or computer would make more precise moves, but that's a feeling you
seldom succeed in shaking.21. Bf1 Rd822. h4 Bf623. g3 Kg724. Bc1 d5
25. a4 Rb826.a5 Nd727. Rxb8 Nxb828. Bb5 Bd829.
d4
It's an
even game until he lets you grab one of his pawns on the queenside. To do so,
you have to let your knight get boxed into a corner, where it risks getting
trapped. You take time to calculate the "variations," the possible sequences of
moves, and see that the knight is safe after all, and can come back into play
if you play the right combination of moves. 29...Bxa5
You
take the pawn, press your clock, take a breath. 30. dxc5 Nxc5 31. Be3 a6
Moves are made along the lines envisioned. You
hear a faint gasp from your opponent. You take this to be his sudden awareness
that your knight is safe after all, and he's down a pawn for nothing. The fact
that you calculated all this better than your master-strength opponent injects
a dose of confidence into your system. I'm
seeing things well today, you tell yourself.32. Bd4+ f633. Bf1 Ne6
You now
have five pawns to your opponent's four. In question is whether you will be
able to make something of this material advantage. Having a one-pawn edge can
lead to a winning game, as a player can nurture that edge into a pawn that
reaches the eighth rank, where it can be promoted to a queen. You'll try to do
just that, while your opponent will try to generate enough counterplay to level
the game again.

You
both reach the thirty-move time control and add an hour to each of your clocks.
Think, move, clock, write. Go to the bathroom. Get some more water on the way
back. Think some more. 34. c4 Nxd435. Nxd4 dxc436. Bxc4 Bc337. Ne6+ Kh838. Nc7 a539. Bb5 Kg740. Kf1 Be541. Nd5 Kf742. f4 Bd443. Ke2 Ke644. Nc7+ Kd645. Na6 Nc646. g4 Ne747. h5 gxh548. gxh5 h649. Kd3 Ba750. Ke4 f5+51. Kf3 Nd552. Bd3 Be353. Bxf5 Bxf454. Bd3 a455. Bc4 Bd256. Ke2 Ba557. Kd3 Nf4+58. Kc2 Nxh559. Bb5 Nf460. Bxa4 h561. Bb5 h462. Bf1 Kd563. Nb8 Ke4
Soon
it's late afternoon, some four-plus hours after you started out, with both of
you having thought through countless variations that coincide with the
sixty-three actual moves made. Only one other game is still under way. The game
to your right ended some time ago, when the fifty-year-old Russian missed a
crucial tactic, which ensnared his rook in a deadly pin. He moaned when he saw
his fate. Faced with a lost position, he quit the game by standing up, flicking
his hand in disgust at the board, and walking away, leaving the
sixteen-year-old to reset the board and record the result. No handshake there.

Almost
everyone else has cleared out of the room. Some have gone upstairs to analyze
their games. Others have stepped outside to get lunch or coffee. One man is
asleep in a chair in the shaded courtyard at the back of the building. Another
is reading a Russian newspaper. The lonesome hum of the air-conditioner can be
heard. Someone walks over to check out your game.64. Nc6
You
have four minutes left on your clock, your opponent five. You've been swapping
off pawns and pieces. He now has only a king, a knight, and a bishop left. You
have a king, a knight, and a bishop as well, but you also have the one precious
pawn. Your only hope for a win lies in advancing that pawn to the last rank and
promoting it to a queen. That will give you sufficient forces to mate the White
king. But if your opponent captures this pawn, even sacrificing a piece for it,
then there's no chance for you to win either, as there's no way for you to gain
a queen. The game will end in a draw, with best play from both sides.

While
pondering this, you see a way to set up a trap. If Grechikhin falls for it,
you'll win the game. With his last move, he transferred his knight to a square
where it's attacking your bishop, which is standing aloof on the far side of
the board, apart from the action. You can offer that bishop up as bait. If his
knight captures it, you can use your king and knight to set up a shield and
hurry your pawn to the finish line. It's like using a slab of meat to lure a
guard dog away from its watch so that you can sneak a lamb past its chops.

A
couple of people are standing by the table, watching. You're aware of this as
you consider your options. If you don't set this trap, the game will end in a
draw. You reach out, grab your king, and with a shaky hand move it to a new
square. 64...Kf3!?
That
puts the bait out: a fat, juicy cardinal, ready to be gobbled up. If Grechikhin
takes the bishop, he'll lose after a tricky string of moves. If he doesn't,
it's a draw. [objectively
better is 64...Bb6 65. Ne7 Ke5 66. Nc6+ Kf5 67. Kb3 Ng6, when Black is on the way
to a win]65. Nxa5?
He
picks up his knight, reaches out, snaps up the bishop, and puts his knight on
the square where the bishop just stood. Knight takes bishop. The gesture
surprises you, since by your calculations the move is bad. Maybe you've missed
something. There's no going back now.
[Better would have
been 65. Nd4+ when after something like Kg4 66. Ba6 Ng2 67. Bc8+ Kf4 68. Ne6+
Ke5 it's still difficult for Black to queen the pawn]65...Kf2
You
move quickly, following through with your plan. Several bodies peer over the board
to chart out moves.66. Ba6 h3
Grechikhin
is caught in the trap. It's simple but effective. Everything works together
just right, like a precisely crafted poem. Exquisite violence. 67. Nc4 h2 68. Bb7 Ng2
Your
opponent jerks his head back two moves later. He's up a piece, but there's no
way now to keep your pawn from queening, and once you have the queen, you will
be able to mate him easily. "The endgame is real swindler's territory," someone
once noted.69. Bxg2 Kxg270. Ne3+ Kf3
The
older man sits disenchanted, looking at the last few pieces on the board,
hoping for a way out, but there is none. A queen is a queen. His time runs out
soon after you promote your pawn to a queen. "Your clock is down," you say,
pointing. His eyes move from your fingers to the board to the clock, and then
back to the board. You hold out your hand. He shakes it softly, looks down.0-1.

He has
lost by time forfeit, but he was beaten. The onlookers walk away. Playing a
serious game of chess is like walking for hours along a narrow footpath carved
into a cliff side. One false step and you plummet to your death. "That's one of
the things that's very upsetting about a game of chess," Nolan [Kordsmeier]
once said. "You can be doing fine the entire game and then with one little
mistake you lose the game. It seems a little absurd, a little cruel."

Grechikhin
gets up from the table as a friend of his tells him, in Russian, how he should
have played. They move to the back corner of the room and huddle over a board
to retrace the game's last moves. You walk over to them to see what they're
considering, but it's clear that this is a private wake.

Exhausted, you go
upstairs and tell the director that you've had enough for one day and would
like a half-point bye in the second round. You leave for home. On the 9:20
train you sink into your chair and take sips from a bottled water. You feel
like a warrior returning from a long, hard battle.